Support for Open Farm Sunday

THE Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has added its support to this year’s Open Farm Sunday, which will run for an eighth time in June.

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THE Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has added its support to this year’s Open Farm Sunday, which will run for an eighth time in June.

AHDB is becoming a lead partner in the event and will organise a series of days from February to April to help farmers with the activities, health and safety and publicity aspects of inviting the public on to their farms.

It will also help set up 10 regional co-ordinators to support host farmers and build a regional profile for the educational event, run a national publicity campaign, stage a series of pilot Open Farm School Days from June 3-14 and develop the event’s website with a fully searchable database of farms to visit.

The focus of this year’s event will be sustainable farming, allowing host farmers to show the work they do caring for the environment while producing food.

Open Farm Sunday manager, Annabel Shackleton, said: “Evidence shows that Open Farm Sunday is playing a valuable role in improving the understanding of farming among the general public, while farmers who take part report real business benefits.

“The theme for 2013 is ‘Discover the story behind your food.’ It’s an important message as we know that many consumers are not connected with food and farming – even people who live in rural areas.

“We are encouraging many more farms to open on June 9 so we can really extend the reach of Open Farm Sunday, which will benefit the farming industry as a whole.

“Events do not need to be huge – a simple guided farm walk for neighbours can have a huge impact.

“The key thing is to showcase the huge variety of farms across Britain, producing great food with care for the countryside.

“Thanks to continued support from AHDB and our other sponsors, we are able to offer farmers a range of support to help them put on safe and engaging events.”

The key thing is to showcase the huge variety of farms across Britain, producing great food with care for the countryside